Turkey is ready to sell more natural gas to the European Union, but wants long-term commitments that justify the necessary investments in infrastructure, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said in an interview with Bloomberg.
Also, Turkey wants to avoid any complicated exchanges that the EU bloc suggests in order to avoid Russian gases, according to Agerpres.
Europe wants to secure alternative gas supplies to replace the Russian gas transiting through Ukraine. Some options could involve Azerbaijan’s natural gas sold to Turkey being redirected to Europe and replaced by additional supplies of Russian natural gas to the Turkish market. Turkey is particularly interested in increasing exports via Bulgaria.
“I need this guarantee from you, 10 years, 15 years, whatever, you have to give us something,” said Alparslan Bayraktar in the Bloomberg interview, describing the Europeans’ suggestion regarding the natural gas exchange as “complicated”.
“All these discussions are possible without knowing what the capacity and the market are. What we need is an increase in the capacity of the interconnection between Turkey and Bulgaria”, which currently can only receive about half of the amount of seven billion cubic meters per year that , from a technical point of view, Turkey can provide it,” added Alparslan Bayraktar.
According to the cited source, the authorities in Ankara could collaborate with Socar, the national energy company of Azerbaijan, to increase gas supplies up to 10 billion cubic meters per year, but they want guarantees regarding the level of European demand.
These statements highlight the diplomatic effort required to replace Russian gas supplies to Europe, given that the agenda of buyers is not always aligned with that of gas sales.
Bayraktar pointed to agreements like the one agreed last year between Turkey and Bulgaria, regarding the import of up to 1.5 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas and their re-export to the west, as a more “flexible” solution. But that could raise questions in Brussels, where the competition regulator is scrutinizing the deal amid fears it restricts competition.
In parallel, Bulgaria, which according to the agreement agreed last year has to pay almost 500,000 dollars a day to have access to the gas network in Turkey, is interested in renegotiating the agreement to allow a third party to use its rights, from because of the high costs.
Turkey’s objective is to become a regional natural gas hub and in this sense it has invested heavily in new natural gas storage and liquefaction facilities as well as in the exploration and production of gas in the Black Sea. Even though it is still almost entirely dependent on imports to cover its domestic gas needs, last year Turkey signed several export contracts with Romania, the Republic of Moldova and Hungary for small quantities of gas.
While Europe is trying to give up Russian natural gas, after the invasion of Ukraine, Moscow remains Turkey’s largest gas supplier, in the context in which Ankara wants to balance its relations with both parties involved in the conflict. Alparslan Bayraktar specified that, last summer, Turkey and Russia negotiated “special prices” for natural gas that are independent of the usual calculation formula provided in the contract signed by the Russian group Gazprom and the Botas company from Turkey. Without disclosing what these prices are, Bayraktar said that: “depending on market conditions, consumption quantities and imports, sometimes the seller, sometimes the buyer can make different suggestions.”